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3/16/2017

Hazy waves

Last summer, all the participants at Jyväskylä summer knit festival got a free shawl pattern designed by the one and only Veera Välimäki. It was nice, but I wasn't going to knit it. But after some time, the design started luring me in.

The shawl was simple and addictive. Even so addictive that I cast on and bound off in just a few days.

The pattern begins with the main color at the sharp edge of the triangle. At first it's just garter st and some short rows to shape the shawl. Just before moving on to the egding, there are few stripes with the contrast color.

The edging is worked with the contrast color. It comprises of a sea shell pattern - worked with short rows of course. Typical and beautiful Veera. There's no room for guessing who designed this lovely shawl.

When it comes to the colors, there's plenty room for guessing. It was impossible to capture their beauty in photographs. The main color is merino from a Finnish indie dyer, Handu. The color name translates to something like Earnest bogeyman. It's an interesting mix of brown and metallic green. A very special color that doesn't really show correctly in any of these pictures.

The contrast color is a cashmere/merino/nylon sock yarn from another Finnish indie dyer, Ikke. The skein is a mix of green, blue and yellows. Oh boy. I've knitted with cashmere yarns before but each time they seduce me completely. The regular sock yarn felt like barbed wire next to this, even though it was soft too. In a shawl the cashmere won't wear out so easily so I'm hoping it won't pill too much.

2 comments:

That really is a special color and a gorgeous shawl - and it will make a lovely lovely gift!!! I know exactly what you mean about knitting with a "luxury" yarn and then being surprised how rough the rest of my yarns feel! lol